IndyCar, Formula One and MotoGP all started this month. The FIA World Endurance Championship returned after a four-month break. A few records were broken. The clocks changed and so did the season. A lot of things are on the table, from rule changes to the future and what is race and where race cars go. There were some fascinating stories this month.
Once again, this is just for fun. In case you are new, this is my gut reaction to headlines without reading the article. Of course, the gripes I have may be answered in the article.
Let's start with Formula One.
Fastest lap points will be irrelevant and confusing
This is wrong. I don't know if it will be proven wrong this year but it is wrong.
Will fastest lap points decide who win a championship? It is not likely but it has happened before. Mike Hawthorn won the 1958 World Drivers' Championship over Stirling Moss by one point. That season, like every season from 1950-1959 in Formula One, awarded a point for fastest lap. Hawthorn scored five fastest laps that year while Moss scored only three.
There is a lot decides a championship and if Moss finished one position better in any of his ten starts or Hawthorn finished a position worse in any of his ten starts the title could have gone in the other direction but the same is true with fastest laps. Remove the points and Moss wins the title. If Moss had scored one more fastest lap that year he would have won the title on tiebreaker.
It is ridiculous to say it will be irrelevant when history shows it has played a role in a championship prior.
Did the fastest lap point have to come back? Was that the problem hanging over Formula One? No and we would have been fine living without it but it is here and it is a bit of a throwback. I don't think it is a bad thing and Formula Two and Formula Three award it.
It is not confusing. Here, I will show you:
Did you score fastest lap? No.
Then you do not get the point.
Did you score fastest lap? Yes.
Did you finish in the top ten? Yes.
Then that driver gets the point.
Did you score fastest lap? Yes.
Did you finish in the top ten? No.
Then you do not get the point.
It is simple. It is not confusing at all. Somebody cannot understand a basic change I guess.
Hamilton critical of reduced free TV presence
Lewis Hamilton has a point and unfortunately I do not have an answer for it.
Television is changing and the companies that have the money are cable outlets, otherwise known as pay-tv outlets, and while a lot of people get it, a fair portion does not, and even those people that get it might not have the correct tier and Formula One is again out of their reach.
The problem is it is a business and while Formula One could sell TV rights for a lower price to get to more people it is shorting itself financially it is going to get the most it can upfront.
And it sucks but there is not easy answer.
Even when an outlet, a free TV outlet buys the television rights it does not mean that is where it will air. In the United States, these companies need to drive viewers to the cable sports channel. That is why the Formula One races are on ESPN or ESPN2 and maybe one or two races are on ABC. It is why NBCSN/CNBC showed 16 to 17 races and NBC aired three or four races.
Formula One can't force the races to be shown on free tv and if it, the price would go down significantly. Instead of have two or three or four properties in a bidding war because they need another sports entity, Formula One would be practically giving it away for nothing and that is not how Formula One works.
I wish there was an easy answer. I wish there was a way for Formula One be more available to everyone around the globe but the world has changed and there is a barrier to entry when it comes to viewing races.
Zak Brown threatens to pull McLaren out of F1
This is a bluff because McLaren's board isn't going to let him pull the team out of Formula One.
The last six or seven years have been rough for McLaren but Formula One is its identity. There is nothing that can fill the void if it left.
IndyCar isn't going to get the job done and neither would the hypercar class in the FIA World Endurance Championship. McLaren needs to be in Formula One. It can join any other championship but they all mean nothing if McLaren is not in Formula One.
Liberty blames Ecclestone for F1's calendar issues
It is always easy to blame the predecessor.
Bernie may not have made it easy but this is where Liberty Media has to step up and decide what it wants Formula One to be and where it wants Formula One to go.
Liberty Media has been the party that has been chasing expanding the schedule and throwing out races on the streets of Copenhagen, Miami and Las Vegas and it has already inked a deal for a race in Hanoi.
I think Liberty Media has to sit down and look at the calendar and decide what it needs, what it wants and how to get all those piece to fit together. Formula One is at the limit. We have 21 races now and with talks of 25 races that is pushing the teams being on the road every other week of the calendar year. I can't imagine that will be a popular thing for teams and crews and it would be a breaking point.
What is Formula One?
My heart would break if Monza, Silverstone, Monaco, Spa-Francorchamps, Suzuka and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve were not on the schedule. Are those the six venues Formula One must have? Maybe but I also believe Formula One has to be in France, Germany, Brazil, Australia and the United States. The list is now at 11 events. We are also in the 21st century and there are venues that cannot be ignored. China is one of those, Singapore is one of those, Abu Dhabi is one of those. That gets us to 14 events.
How many races is realistic? While there are 21 now, I think 20 is the limit.
How do you fill the final six when Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Russia and Mexico are what is left of the current rounds, Vietnam is already on the books and countries like the Netherlands, Denmark Argentina, Portugal and South Africa are all on the outside and a second race in the United States has been floating in the background?
It is tough to rotate races because tracks to make their money back having a race every other year. In a better world you could work something out where Formula One goes to a track one year and the next FormulaTwo goes and the rotation makes the event viable but that is not practical.
Liberty Media can blame Bernie all it wants but it has the keys now and it is time for it to make the difficult decisions.
On to NASCAR...
Brad Keselowski's Penske record will be 'tough to beat'
Considering Scott McLaughlin has won 23 races in less than three years with Team Penske I think there is a good chance he could run down Keselowski especially if he stays in Australia.
What Keselowski has going for himself is he is still active and will get a chance to raise the bar with each race. The other thing that makes this record a little more achievable is in NASCAR you can moonlight and run two series and pad your stats with some victories in NASCAR's second division. If you have a great year as a Penske development driver and say win eight or nine races that is a great start. Combine that with a dazzling Cup career and some double dipping and it isn't that hard to break.
Joe Gibbs: Kyle Busch is "driven by trying to do something great"
No shit, aren't all of us? Isn't every driver out there trying to do something great? Name one driver who is out there just to be mediocre? Most won't be able to accomplished it, most will not recognize what it takes to reach the heights but they still want to be great. It doesn't make Kyle Busch special.
Kyle Larson believes World of Outlaws is made for live TV
He is not entirely wrong but there is a reason why we don't see people throwing money at World of Outlaws and there is a reason why World of Outlaws isn't trying to be a live sports property.
For starters, you are going to have to convince track promoters that live television is not going to stop people from coming out to the racetrack. The same way television didn't kill radio or movie theaters and the same way live broadcasts of the Indianapolis 500 hasn't turned that place into a ghost town people are still going to show up to Williams Grove, Knoxville, Chico, Eldora, Dodge City and Grand Forks.
The other issue is I don't think World of Outlaws is going to want and try to fit a television window. Though heat races and the multiple main events building up to an A-Main is thrilling stuff and quick races, the A-Main can't start at 12:30 a.m. ET. Television isn't going to give World of Outlaws a six-hour television window. It would get three hours tops to get everything in and the preferred end time would be around 11:00 p.m. ET.
Not every World of Outlaws event could be shown live. You think people are burned out on NASCAR after 38 weeks, what do you think would happen if World of Outlaws was on four to five times a week from February to November.
This isn't going to happen because dirt racing does not embrace change all that well especially when it is told to change from an outside point of view.
I am all for some events being shown live. It sucks that the Knoxville Nationals hasn't been on live television for what feels like almost a decade. I would really love to see NBC Sports pick up the biggest dirt events (Chili Bowl, Kings Royal, Knoxville Nationals, 4-Crown Nationals, Hoosier Hundred and maybe Turkey Night Grand Prix, although I am not sure how that would do on Thanksgiving night) and show those live. Outside of those few events I am not sure there is the appetite there for that much live dirt racing.
From dirt to sport cars....
Opinion: Why it's time Le Mans took another look at DPi
Because manufactures are not committing to the hypercar regulations and DPi already has a handful of manufactures.
This has not gone to plan for the ACO and time is running out and with time running out on commitment for the inaugural season of the hypercar regulations something has to be done. The ACO cannot afford to have only Toyota commit or no manufactures commit but maybe a privateer of Glickenhaus. Manufactures have carried the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 21st century, first Audi then Audi and Peugeot, then Audi and Toyota, the trio of Audi, Toyota and Porsche, that brief spell with Nissan, Toyota and Porsche and ending with Toyota only.
The race and the world championship would lose a lot of ground if the top class is only privateer entries and that is nothing against the likes of Glickenhaus but manufactures bring a lot more money and that makes things go round.
Atherton Expecting Sebring WEC Return
Well... it is already on the next WEC schedule so I think it is going to happen.
I thought this year's race was a success. I think both organizations got an equal amount of track time. I do not think anyone lost out or were shortchanged. The second pit lane looked really good. I think the fans that attended enjoyed it immensely.
There are a few tweaks that could be made. When it was first announced it was said the WEC race had to be something more than a 6-hour race because that is what is expected in America. I never agreed with that and I am glad WEC decided to have a Friday race. The 1000-mile/eight-hour distance was different and I did not mind it.
I think what could make the race better is moving the start time up so the race isn't ending at midnight. I would like to get the race over around 10:00 p.m. local time that way corner works can get at least 12 hours of rest before the 12 Hours of Sebring. That might cause an issue with the Michelin Pilot Challenge race. Could Michelin Pilot Challenge start at 10:00 a.m. and have WEC start at 2:00 p.m.? I don't know. It wouldn't be unheard of and Michelin Pilot Challenge races early at Lime Rock Park.
I think adjustments will be made and I look forward to this race in 2020.
Mazda: Daytona reliability issues have "been addressed"
(Looks at box score)... #55 Mazda finished sixth, one lap down. #77 Mazda finished 37th out of 38 cars, 115 laps down after stopping in the second hour due to an electrical issue.
Sebring was a step in the right direction especially after the fiery and early end at Daytona and I think Mazda can win at Long Beach. I think I have seen enough to know Mazda has the pace to run with Cadillac and Acura. Long Beach is only 100 minutes. The car doesn't have to last that long. The same goes for the other non-endurance races. I would not be surprised if Mazda won at Road America or Mosport. Even last year, the team finished second and third at Petit Le Mans. It isn't so much reliability but consistency of reliability.
It is a good car but it is one of those things where it has to put together three or four consecutive endurance races with no issues before I can stop holding my breath.
And we end with IndyCar...
Alonso tunes up for Indy 500 by winning Sebring WEC race
Can we stop making everything Fernando Alonso does relevant to the Indianapolis 500?
Alonso wasn't "tuning up" for Indianapolis with the WEC race. He was doing his job. He is a Toyota factory driver, who is in a championship fight. Ben Hanley apparently wasn't tuning up for Indianapolis at Sebring despite him being in the same race. The same goes for Jordan King in Formula Two. Is he tuning up for the Indianapolis 500?
Let's stop the nonsense.
It is great that Alonso is going to return to the Indianapolis 500 but let's not frame his entire life, his entire career around him attempting this one race. Let's not turn his lunch into part of his Indianapolis 500 preparations. Let's not make a trip to the beach somehow to be a vitamin D increase that will benefit him in the Indianapolis 500.
In this case, this was Alonso doing his other job. It had nothing to do with the Indianapolis 500.
That is that for March and April is here. The big series are underway and we wait for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season to start. It will get warmer and some of our favorite races and racetracks will be here shortly.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
